5.16.2011

Euro Beer #11 - Le Royalty

In the fall of 2007 my wife and I traveled through Europe for 10 weeks. We ate a lot of food and drank of a lot of beer (and wine). Not enough food, not enough beer. First beers on the Belgian mainland:Euro Beer #11 - Le Royalty

While traveling, arriving in new cities is always confusing and disorienting. It's also the time when you are most likely to get into fights with your travel partner(s). Your lost, your hungry, your schlepping your bags, yada yada yada. Luckily it was still early on in the trip and we were still fresh and happy. But it was still disorienting. Our host lived close by and we eventually found our way over to his flat. I had to call him first and make sure he was home. His name was Yves and we had never met him before this:

"Hello, is this . . . Yah-ves?"" . . . uh, yes, . . . this is Eve.""Hi, this is Aaron, just wanted to check if you are home we are on our way over.""Yes, come on up."

Then of course I yelled at Sofia for allowing me to sound like a complete idiot. "Hello, Yves saint Laurent! Sofia you are supposed to know this stuff! I can't believe I just called him Yah-ves! Yah-ves? Ugh, I'm a moron!"Yves was perfectly kind and never mentioned my faux pas. He was actually quite knowledgeable about beer and schooled me on lambics, a subject I only had limited knowledge about before leaving on this trip. After talking for awhile, we set out for a beer before dinner. We walked aimlessely. It was Sunday evening and most everything was closed. We finally stumbled upon Le Royalty, a small, then empty bar off the Place du Grand Sablon. We slugged down two beers–a Bellevue Kriek and a Westmalle Triple.